Well-known throughout is the statement in the Tikunim that the "Shechinah is suffering in the exile"— as it were. Metaphorically speaking, it is like a bodily ailment ["Who makes a distinction between holy ..." ]. The cause of illness or health lies in the extension and flow of the life-force vested in the blood of life which flows from the heart to all the limbs; and turning round and around, goes the spirit of life and the blood into all the limbs, through the veins that are absorbed in them, and returns to the heart. Now, when the circulation and flow of this spirit of life is always as it should be, in its proper order arranged for it by the blessed Fountainhead of life, man is perfectly healthy. For all the limbs are bound together and receive their proper vitality from the heart through this circulation. But if there is any disorder in any place, restraining, hindering or reducing the circulation of the blood with the spirit of life vested in it, then this bond [which binds all the limbs to the heart through this circulation] is broken or diminished, man will fall ill and sick, may the Lord have mercy.

Precisely so, metaphorically speaking, all the souls of Israel are regarded as the limbs of the Shechinah which is called the "heart," as it is written: "The Rock of my heart;" and as it is written: "And I will dwell amongst them." That is, the term Shechinah denotes that the light of the Lord dwells in the worlds Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, in order to vivify them.

The issue of this vivification is by means of a prior investment in the souls of Israel. This is so because none of the creatures are in any approximation to the blessed Creator; for all that are before Him are esteemed as truly naught. Thus it is impossible for them to receive vivification from His blessed light and effluence, to become creatures ex nihilo into substantiality, and to be living and subsisting. (This is made possible) only through the souls that rose in His thought and preceded the creation of the worlds by the aspect of Speech. Thus our sages, of blessed memory, said: "With whom did the Holy One, blessed is He, take counsel ...", as was made known elsewhere. And it is well-known throughout that the whole issuance of vivification, and the effluence from the upper to the lower worlds, are from them, as stated in the Sefer Yetzirah: "Their beginning is wedged in their culmination, and their culmination is wedged in their beginning." In the writings of R. Isaac Luria, of blessed memory, this is referred to as or yashar (direct light), and or chozer (reflective light), and as it is written: "And the animals advanced and retreated (ratzo veshov)"

Thus, according to these words and this truth— which it is not possible to explain properly in writing, it follows that the Shechinah is referred to as "heart," and the souls as "limbs." This teaches us that when all the souls are attached and bound together, the circulation and flow of the vivification and of the effluence "turns around and around," and "their culmination is wedged in their beginning" to bind and join them all to "the Lord (who) is One," to be attached unto Him, blessed be He. And thus it is written: "You are standing this day, all of you, before the Lord your G‑d — [stating expressly: "all of you," and stating expressly: "before"]— your heads .... from the hewer of your wood ..." And hereby will be understood the saying of our sages, of blessed memory, that the destruction of the Second Temple and the Fall of Israel into exile, and the withdrawal of the Shechinah and its descent to Edom, into a state of exile, as it were; all this was because of the sin of groundless hate and a division of hearts, the Merciful save us. And that is why (the Shechinah) is referred to as ailing, metaphorically speaking. As for— "He raises the fallen, and heals the sick," in plural form, these are all the limbs.....